Service Design and Delivery: How Design Thinking Can Innovate Business and Add Value to Society

$21.99

Service Design and Delivery has been broadly discussed and explored by various players, including the practitioners who deliver services, scholarly professionals who evaluate it, and laymen who are the recipients of service. In this book, we will examine two specific approaches to this task: Design Thinking and Societal Consideration. In other words, we will look at Service Design and Delivery from the innovator’s viewpoint as well as from the viewpoint of the social entrepreneur.
Consequently, it is important to design services not only for profit maximization but also for social value. Innovation is not a static thing; it evolves dynamically; and every innovation needs to start from new place. Our society is changing in very subtle ways, and our customers today are different from our customers of yesterday. Because of this dynamism adopting a design thinking approach to organizational improvement is critical for both business and society.

Innovative Pricing Strategies to Increase Profits, Second Edition

$21.99

According to the economic theory of the firm, businesses strive to determine the single price that maximizes profits. In fact, many firms can extract more revenue and increase profits with pricing strategies that are far more innovative than the single-price strategy. However, in the world of pricing, there is no “one size fits all” strategy.
Some pricing strategies are better suited to some situations than others. Sam’s Club, owned by Walmart Stores, Inc., for example, charge a membership fee for the right to purchase the store’s inventory whereas Walmart Supercenters do not. If Suddenlink Communications bundles Internet, cable, and phone service to increase profits, why does it also sell the same items separately? Is it true that passengers seated next to each other on the same flight might pay dramatically different fares?
Inside you’ll learn how various pricing strategies, including price discrimination, two-part tariffs, bundling, peak-load pricing, and dynamic pricing need specific and necessary ingredients in order to succeed. The authors show you how to use microeconomic theory to determine which pricing strategies will succeed, and under what conditions.

Redefining Shareholder Value: Demystifying the Valuation Myth

$21.99

Measuring shareholder value has become crucial in the current economic environment, especially following the consistent pressure from institutional shareholders on companies to create shareholder value in an adverse economic environment. Maximizing the company’s value will make the company less appealing to hostile takeovers. Takeovers are a capital market mechanism designed to control the conflicts of interest between shareholders and managers of the company.
In this study, we will examine the best methods used in measuring shareholder value, and furthermore explore the process of shareholder value creation in the years prior and following the creeping takeover of Ivanhoe Mines by Rio Tinto Plc. We have based our study on data and ratio analytics from ThomsonONE (Reuters), information that is publicly available through press releases, analyst coverage, and financial news. Our study includes an in-depth analysis of the creeping takeover of Ivanhoe Mines by Rio Tinto Plc.

Consumer Experiences and Emotion Management

$21.99

Emotions can organize cognitive processes or disorganize them, be active or passive, lead to adaptation, or maladaptation. Consumers may be conscious of their emotions or may be motivated by unconscious emotions. The emotions in combined form with different intensities have an adaptive significance in consumers’ life. Further, the challenges that marketers and researchers face in today’s global markets are to understand the expression of the emotions or consumer emotional experience.
The purpose of this book is to emphasize the value of emotions and explore mental behavioral and emotional dimensions that affect consumers of all age groups, societies, and cultures. This book is an excellent reference for students, executives, marketers, researchers, and trainers. It includes the different elements of emotion, evidence of how emotions govern and organize consumer life, and emotion and individual functioning, including psychological disorders and well being.

The Good Company: Sustainability in Hospitality, Tourism, and Wine

$21.99

“At last, a book that tackles the topic of sustainability in the global travel industry, but with a real understaning of its economic importance as a better alternative–a must read.” – Michael McCloskey, former Chairman of The Sierra Club.

“This much-needed work is essentially a cookbook, filled with inspiring recipes for sustainable travel. This will be a valuable resource, for everyone from students to industry leaders, for many years to come.” – Jeff Greenwald, Executive Director, Ethical Traveler The Good Company tells the stories of over 30 inspiring companies around the world that are among the ethical leaders in the industry. The broad positive message is encouraging and enervating; each of the companies seeks to live up to the highest standard. The authors tell the steps they have taken and what has motivated them or enabled them to pursue such noble aims.

This book includes case studies from of hotels, cruise lines, tour operators, agri-tourism, wineries and much more. Throughout the book, the authors address a variety of questions innovators and entrepreneurs have and note the lessons these companies can teach to those who want to build sustainable businesses that address the world’s social and environmental problems.

U.S. Politics and the American Macroeconomy

$21.99

This book considers the interrelation among macroeconomic politics, macroeconomic policymakers, macroeconomic policies, and macroeconomic performance. This interaction is examined using the expectational Phillips curve model, which measures macroeconomic outcomes in terms of inflation and unemployment. The subject of macroeconomic politics mainly focuses on voter behavior, presidential re-election ambition, and political party priorities. These political factors influence the macroeconomic policy actions of the president, Congress, and the central bank; the analysis takes into account both fiscal and monetary policies.

The author’s examination of citizen sentiment is based on rational voter theory and the median voter model. He compares the effects of macroeconomic farsightedness versus shortsightedness in voters and contrasts the conservative versus liberal perspectives on macroeconomic policy and performance. The empirical component of the analysis examines the electoral and partisan political business cycle effects upon the U.S. economy, and evidence of idiosyncratic effects during the time frame of 1961–2014 is found. Finally, the author discusses macroeconomic influence on various measures of voter sentiment, such as presidential job approval, and presidential and congressional election outcomes.

A Guide to Sales Management: A Practitioner’s View of Trade Sales Organizations

$21.99

In many FMCG companies, the challenges for the sales function are to develop effective sales strategies and to deliver excellent sales operations in order to support the achievement of business targets. The purpose of this book is to provide a practical guide to sales management through the analysis of its key components: route to market, sales strategy, key performance indicators, organizational models, sales force management, customer business planning, order to cash, and sales and operations planning. For each of these topics, the content of this book is a balance of theory, practical tips, and useful tools, keeping in mind not only the “what,” but also the “how” of the implementation.
The reader will learn how to map sales channels, assess a customer base, design a sales strategy, build a sales scorecard, and organize a sales team’s frontline and back offi ce. The book also covers how to structure trade category plans, customer business plans, and customer negotiation plans and how to optimize the sales team’s contribution to the company’s key fundamental processes. It concludes with an overview of the future challenges of sales management.

Preventing Litigation: An Early Warning System to Get Big Value out of Big Data

$21.99

“An enormous accomplishment.” -Thomas D. Barton, Louis and Hermoine Brown Professor of the Law at California Western School of Law “As a lawyer or client, if you prefer a fence at the top of a cliff to an ambulance at the bottom, this insightful book is essential reading.” -Professor Richard Susskind, author of Tomorrow’s Lawyers
Preventing Litigation, for the first time, explains how to build an early warning system to identify the risk of litigation before the damage is done, and proves that there is big value in less litigation. The authors are subject matter experts, one in litigation, the other in computer science, and each has more than four decades of training and experience in their respective fields. Together, they present a way forward to a transformative revolution for the slow-moving world of law for the benefit of the fast- paced environment of the business world.

ISO 50001 Energy Management Systems: What Managers Need to Know About Energy and Business Administration

$21.99

Managers and academia targeting energy performance improvements have a valuable tool in ISO 50001 Energy Management Systems, which allows for a certification after third-party audits. Business managers may reduce costs and fully tap the strategic potential of energy as a competitive factor. Academic lecturers can introduce energy in their specific field of teaching and research, helping their students to be successful. Students get a unique selling proposition being endowed with this cutting-edge expertise when applying for a job.
The book provides an overview of energy and business administration as an evolving field, outlining the theoretical framework supported by practical examples. Energy oriented business administration involves.